Home Stretch

Well, we are in the homestretch. Only about 4.5 weeks until the baby is born. As I shared in yesterdays sermon, we are pretty set for the arrival. Just a few final preparations to make.
1. Stock up on diapers
2. Get the bassinet ready
3. Decide on a name

It is hard to believe that it is almost July already.
It has been a busy summer already.
Since school let out on June 5th, we have had a weeks vacation in the Catskills, the boys had a phenomenal run in the playoffs. There team made it all the way to the Championship Game (They lost), but Benjamin won the clinching game to get them there. He also hit his first homerun, a 3 run shot off the other teams ace to seal the win. Joshua had a really good year, going from a sub last year to a full time starter and regular contributor. He has one more year left in the Majors, could be a tough lefty pitcher with a little work.

After that crazy week, the boys and I went to Youth Camp for a week. There were 37 total from Praise. What an amazing week of fun, laughs and God. We had students baptized in the HS, some really took there worship to a new level and others left camp challenged and invigorated to take their relationship with God more seriously. Plus the Praise kids dominated Bible Quiz and
were on 4 of the top 5 teams in the final points standings.

June is ending with the older kids in NYC spending a week with their grandparents and cousins and Kristi and I using the time to get some stuff done around the house.

All in all a great start to summer and a wild time to be getting ready for a baby.
PB

Prairie Home Companion

Put on a lot of miles this week, probably more than 1,200 miles in all. Drove up to see my family and pick up a few items from my parent's home in western Massachusetts. The next day up to Maine to visit with Ana and Chuck and help her decorate the new apartment (what a blessing from God). Ate loads of lobster and fried clams. Three work days in all, one fun day exploring Kennebunkport. Then back down to western Massachusetts to the Berkshires to a place called Tanglewood. Took in a live radio broadcast of the Prairie Home Companion and special guests were Martin Sheen, Arlo Guthrie, and Steve Martin who is playing banjo in the video. First learned to enjoy Garrison Keiller on those long drives from the East to the Midwest. What a fun radio show. Hunt for it sometime and enjoy the stories that he tells. Glad to be back home after all that.

Pastor P

Surviving the Economic Meltdown

Here is a tremendous source for financial wisdom during these challenging times.
Check out this link and download yourself a free PDF copy of the book.
http://survivethemeltdown.org/

Pastor P

CHANGE

Photo of Hurricane Ike (at left)

Below are various quotations on change. Everything seems to be changing very rapidly and I am not sure that the average human being has any real handle on all the change that is around us today. Of course my concern is that in the midst of such turbulence we would have a haven, a place of security and mooring, somewhere to anchor us. Only one source that I know of, God.

His Word and His Spirit will faithfully guide us. He is our eye in the storm. Remember now, the disciples had to wake Him as He was sleeping through their storm. That's how much peace He can bring. He is the Prince of Peace! Pastor P

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987), The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.
Carol Burnett (1936 - )

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix.
Christina Baldwin

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.
Harrison Ford (1942 - ), quoted by Garry Jenkins in 'Harrison Ford: Imperfect Hero'

Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Walden (1970)

Nothing endures but change.
Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.
James Gordon, M.D.

Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.
King Whitney Jr.

We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.
Lynn Hall, Where Have All the Tigers Gone?, 1989

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD), Meditations

Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking but a full-on metamorphosis.
Martha Beck, O Magazine, Growing Wings, January 2004

The more things change, the more they remain... insane.
Michael Fry and T. Lewis, Over the Hedge, 05-09-04

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
Nelson Mandela (1918 - ), 'A Long Walk to Freedom'

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.
Ramsay Clark

This isn't good or bad. It's just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.
Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 03, 2004

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965), The Razor's Edge, 1943